International
Trump says that the US will control Gaza and Hamas responds that it will not allow it
US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that the United States “will take control” of the Gaza Strip in the long term and rebuild it, turning it into the new “Middle East River”, after permanently resettling the Palestinians in other countries.
“I don’t want to be funny or smart, but the Middle East Riviera… This could be so magnificent,” Trump said at a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
After this announcement, the former Israeli Minister of National Security, the settler and anti-Arab Itamar Ben Gvir, urged Netanyahu to announce “the adoption of the plan as soon as possible” to expel the Palestinians from Gaza.
Hamas, for its part, has said that it will not allow the plans announced by Trump to be fulfilled and described his proposal as “racist.”
“The (Palestinian) people who have stood firm for 15 months (of war) against the most powerful military machine and the most criminal Army, and who thwarted the attempt to displace it, will remain attached to their land and will not accept that plan no matter the cost,” Hamas spokesman Abdul Latif al Qanou said in a statement.
“The American racist position is consistent with the position of the Israeli extreme right to displace our people and liquidate their cause,” continued Qanou, who called on the international community to reject Trump’s statements and support the Palestinians’ right to self-determination in the face of Israeli occupation.
China has expressed its opposition to the position of the US president and has reiterated the need to seek a path towards a “two-state solution” while the Kremlin has preferred to stay on the sidelines.
“We oppose the forced displacement of the residents of the Gaza Strip. China hopes that all parties will accept the ceasefire and that a two-state political solution will be returned,” Foreign Affairs spokesman Lin Jian said at a press conference.
The Chinese spokesman added in the daily appearance, the first after a week suspended by the Lunar New Year holidays, that the parties involved must “push the Palestinian issue back towards the right path.”
“That involves an arrangement based on the ‘two-state solution’ that aims at lasting peace in the Middle East,” he warned.
On the other hand, Russia, with which the United States maintains a tense relationship, refrained from criticizing the proposal of the US president, although he clarified that they “have heard” it and that they have also followed the statements in this regard from Egypt or Jordan, countries that also oppose the intentions of the tycoon.
For his part, the president of the Palestinian National Authority (ANP), Mahmud Abbas, rejected the proposal and recalled that the enclave is an “integral part” of the Palestinian State.
“We will not allow the rights of our people, for which we have been fighting for decades and for whom we have made great sacrifices, to be violated,” Abbas said in a message collected by the official Palestinian news agency, Wafa.
In his message, Abbas said that the rights of the Palestinians are not negotiable, and that no one can make decisions about the future of the Palestinians except themselves.
The president, who also chairs the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), also thanked Saudi Arabia for its rejection of the forced expulsion of Gazans, and asked the UN to take “urgent” measures to protect international resolutions, which recognize the right to return of Palestinians displaced by Israel.
Huséin al Sheij, the general secretary of the PLO and Abbas’s right-hand man, also expressed his rejection of Trump’s plan and said that the two-state solution, one Israeli and one Palestinian, is the only guarantee of peace in the Middle East.
“Here we were born, here we live and here we will die,” the official said in a message.
Trump did not rule out deploying US troops to support the reconstruction of Gaza and assured that the US will do “whatever it takes” to complete that project.
This is the first time that Trump, who campaigned with the promise of taking the US out of the wars in the Middle East, speaks of a direct long-term involvement in Gaza and also the first time he suggests that the Palestinians should be permanently resettled in other countries.
Specifically, at the press conference, a journalist asked him what this US occupation would consist of and if it would be prolonged, to which Trump responded in the affirmative and said that he contemplates a “long-term ownership position” on the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinians claim the Gaza Strip as part of a future state along with the West Bank and East Jerusalem, so the displacement of the two million people living in the enclave and their real estate development by the US would put an end to the concept of the Palestinian State as it has been conceived so far.
Asked about it, Trump avoided expressing support for the “two-state solution”, which has been the traditional US policy on the conflict for decades, and reiterated his idea that the people of Gaza be resettled in other countries.
Since his return to power on January 20, Trump has reiterated this proposal on several occasions and insisted that Jordan and Egypt should accept more Palestinian refugees from Gaza, an idea flatly rejected by those two countries, as well as by the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the Palestinian Authority and the Arab League.
For the first time, in statements to the press at the beginning of his meeting with Netanyahu in the Oval Office, Trump suggested that this resettlement should be “permanent” and tried to frame it as a humanitarian measure, stating that it was impossible to believe that someone would want to remain in a territory devastated by war, which he described as a “demolition zone”.
During the meeting, in addition to the future of Gaza, both leaders talked about the fragile ceasefire with Hamas, the normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia and the growing tension with Iran.
The visit was an international endorsement for Netanyahu, who left Israel for the first time since the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant against him in November, a decision that Washington has strongly condemned and whose jurisdiction it does not recognize.
Netanyahu took from Trump not only comments that satisfy the Israeli far-right, but also concrete actions in support of Israel.
Before meeting with Netanyahu, Trump signed an executive order to continue suspending funds to the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) and end US participation in the United Nations Human Rights Council, which Netanyahu accuses of being partial against Israel.
International
Mexico’s Sheinbaum urges U.S. to target cartels on its own soil
Under orders from U.S. President Donald Trump, the Department of Justice has directed the “total elimination” of drug cartels.
Newly appointed U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi has made the “complete eradication” of organized crime cartels a top priority. In response, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum urged Washington on Friday to begin operations against these groups within U.S. territory.
On Thursday, the U.S. Justice Department released a memorandum in which Bondi called for a review of national security and anti-narcotics strategies to achieve the swift dismantling of all cartels and transnational criminal organizations.
“This public policy requires a fundamental shift in mindset and approach.
We must do more than just try to mitigate the enormous harm these groups cause in the United States. It is not enough to stop the wave of deadly poisons, such as fentanyl, that these organizations distribute in our country,” the memo states.
International
Trump strips Biden of classified briefings: ‘Joe, you’re fired’
U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Friday that he will revoke his predecessor Joe Biden’s authorization to receive classified intelligence briefings, a privilege typically extended to former presidents even after leaving office.
“There is no reason for Joe Biden to continue having access to classified information,” Trump stated on his social media platform, Truth Social.
“We will immediately revoke Joe Biden’s security clearances and stop his daily intelligence briefings,” he declared, before adding in capital letters: “JOE, YOU’RE FIRED.”
Trump claims he made the decision in response to Biden’s actions in 2020 when the then-president stripped him of security clearance after winning the election. At the time, Biden cited Trump’s “erratic behavior” both before and after the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, when protesters attempted to block Congress from certifying Biden’s victory.
On Friday, Trump argued that Biden “cannot be trusted” with intelligence reports, referencing a special counsel’s findings on classified documents found at Biden’s home, which concluded that the 82-year-old Democrat has “poor memory.”
International
Florida Governor announces Highway Patrol to perform Immigration tasks
The personnel of a Florida security agency will be able to carry out tasks against irregular immigration in this US state, after an agreement signed with the government Department of Homeland Security (DHS), state governor Ron DeSantis reported on Friday.
At a press conference, the Republican announced the agreement signed with this federal agency through which the members of the Florida Highway Patrol will be able to interrogate and arrest people suspected of being illegal immigrants, as well as prosecute those who re-entered the country after a deportation.
“Now is the last chance to end illegal immigration once and for all,” said DeSantis, after announcing this agreement that grants “migration authority” to the state Highway Police, dependent on the Florida Department of Road Safety and Motor Vehicles.
Under this agreement with DHS, the troops of the Florida Highway Patrol will also be able to arrest undocumented people who arrive in this southern state by sea and hand them over to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE).
DeSantis explained that being an agreement with the Government of US President Donald Trump, what was announced this Friday does not require approval by the state legislature, with whom the governor maintains a struggle.
The state Congress has approved in an extraordinary session convened by DeSantis a migration project that ignores proposals made by the governor, who has replied that he plans to veto the initiative once it reaches his desk for signature.
The fight against irregular immigration has been one of DeSantis’ workhorses, especially when he was a candidate for the Republican nomination for the 2024 presidential elections, from which he withdrew before the advance of current President Trump.
Since then and to date, he has harshly criticized what he describes as an “open border policy”, in force during the mandate of former President Joe Biden (2021-2025).
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